WWE Royal Rumble 2013: Booking a Dark-Horse Winner, Part 2

The Royal Rumble countdown continues to build intrigue on the outcome of the WWE Championship match. Will CM Punk edge closer to 500? Will Rock fulfill his promise and become WWE Champion for the first time in over 10 years? We shall see come the conclusion of Sunday evening.

This match has a great deal at stake, but even more is what made the Royal Rumble one of the most exciting pay-per-views of the year—the 30-man battle royal.

Yes, we may see superstars such as John Cena, Randy Orton and Sheamus win for the second time, but they don't need Royal Rumble victories to include themselves in the world title picture heading to WrestleMania.

And what about Ryback? He doesn't necessarily need a Royal Rumble victory to be placed in the title picture; however, his momentum has stalled so much that he may be the likely winner in order to regain his steam from late-2012.

So that leaves us with another dark-horse pick that could reasonably argue to be a near-future world champion: Antonio Cesaro.

Cesaro started off his WWE TV career as the new crush of Aksana after Teddy Long was dethroned as General Manager at WrestleMania 28. After having a boastful win-loss record, his momentum started to stall due to miscues from Aksana. As a result, she got ditched and Cesaro started a dominant reign as US Champion.

It is clear that the WWE has much stock in Antonio Cesaro. Now is the time to pull the switch to further catapult his career by winning the Royal Rumble.

How the potential winner should be booked

First off, Cesaro should drop the title to the Miz at the pre-show. This would open up his path to the World Heavyweight Championship by winning the Royal Rumble later in the show.

In this scenario, Alberto Del Rio will go to WM 29 holding the title (although I still don't believe he'll have it by then, but a heel winning the RR would require him being champion).

At Elimination Chamber, Dolph Ziggler cashes in the MITB briefcase at the end of the WHC match, becoming champion. Ziggler only keeps the belt for a short period of time, before ADR regains it.

This allows Cesaro to feud with ADR, and even a possible triple threat match including Ziggler. The other scenario could be that Ziggler does not lose the title before WM 29, and both Cesaro and ADR are chasing the title.

Cesaro wins the match at WrestleMania, becoming World Heavyweight Champion.